THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



295 



ings." For our part, we suspect that thrice three 

 such manurings (of putrescent matter alone) will 

 not be permanent, without lirae applied in some 

 manner (and coal ashes is one, though a feeble 

 source ofsupply,) is given to the land also. Now, 

 according to our view, if a sufficient dose of mild 

 lime had been given before the first putrescent 

 manuring, even although the benefit of the 

 lime had not been distinguishable at first, nor ap- 

 preciated since, it would have caused two of the 

 manurings to be as serviceable as the three, up 

 to this time, and much more in all future time. 

 And if this view and opinion were admitted to 

 be true to the fullest extent, still it will be mani- 

 I'cst to the reader, inasmuch as such effects are 

 merely preservative, and where other far more 

 immediate and active manures are lavishly ap- 

 plied afterwards, and repeated in rapid succession, 

 that the efTects really due to the lime might not be 

 known and appreciated, or if seen at all, would be 

 ascribed to other causes. Especially would this 

 be the case, when the true action of lime in soil 

 was not understood, or such benefits from it are 

 expected as are produced by putrescent and ali- 

 mentary manures. 



But in our own practice, the " fixing" and pre- 

 servative power of lime was had in view, and 

 such effects looked for: and such as was our own 

 poor and bad land, (and poor and bad enough it 

 was,) we have never made an application of 

 marl thereon that was not both effective and 

 profitable ; nor even on a naked gall, which was 

 not effective in improving it, by fixing other and 

 alimentary manures, (if such were added in any 

 manner,) though perhaps such improvement of 

 galls might sometimes cost more than the land 

 was worth after the highest improvement thereof. 



We do not, however, pretend to set forth our 

 own limited experience of results, in a particular 

 locality, as indicating precisely such as are to be 

 expected in other localities, where other and un- 

 known conditions of soilmay exist. And we are 

 ready to admit, in advance, that there is existing 

 a difference of circumstances, of which the causes 

 are unknown to us, in soils above and below the 

 granite range, or falls of the rivers, though of 

 like texture and general appearance. And we 

 have inferred, as different effects of this unknown 

 difference of causes, that gypsum is more gene- 

 rally active and useful on lands above the falls 

 than below ; and lime and calcareous manures 

 generally more effective and profitable below the 

 falls than on lands of similar appearance above. 

 On this interesting question, many facts and 

 proofs are wanting. And, to gather all the light 

 desired, the advocates of either of these manures, 



generally, should not insist that their rule of 

 action, however good for themselves, is of univer- 

 sal application ; but should also examine for, and 

 give all due weight to, the real or apparent ex- 

 ceptions to be found elsewhere. We freely ac- 

 knowledge that we are much in the dark on this 

 as on many other particular points of this general 

 and extensive subject for investigation. 



But Mr. Turner admits the propriety, and pro- 

 bable profit, of liming his land, after he has or 

 shall have applied three successive heavy dress- 

 ings of putrescent manures, at intervals of three 

 years each. But it would have been far better 

 to have applied the lime before. The full com- 

 parison of our views and statements would bring 

 us both nearly to one point of agreement in this 

 respect. The only remaining difference seems 

 to be, that, while we recommend making ready 

 and applying the preserver before exposing to 

 waste and loss the thing desired to be pre- 

 served, Mr. Turner's opinion and designed practice 

 would reverse the order, and liirnish the means 

 for preservation 3 to 9 years after the putrescent 

 manure had been applied, and during all which 

 time, by his own showing, it had been rapidly 

 wasting. The putrescent manure he most cor- 

 rectly regards as his great treasure. The cal- 

 careous matter in soil, or to be applied to soils, 

 where not existing, is the lock on that treasure. 

 Is it then most judicious and economical, to fur- 

 nish the lock before there is yet any treasure to 

 secure, or to wait until after it has been for years 

 in a state of daily extraction and waste ? 



(c.) It is very far from being the fact, that the 

 same prescription of lime for soil is made for 

 opposite diseases. The disease is one, though 

 there may be some variation of minor symptoms 

 according to difference of the constitution and 

 previous treatment of the patient — and that dis- 

 ease is the great deficiency of lime, without which 

 in sufficient quantity no soil can be good. In 

 charging upon these soils the cause of iheir 

 worthlessness, the allegation must be of what is 

 absent, and not what is present. We had the 

 misfortune, within the last few hours, to be com- 

 pelled to hear the speech of a very vfindy and 

 magniloquent member of the bar, who in re- 

 ferring to the baseness of an individual whose 

 case and character were in question, said that 

 " he was brim-full, to overflowing, with the total 

 want of all moral rectitude." Now all these bad 

 lands, however various and numerous their vices 

 and defects, are all "brim-full, and to overflowing, 

 with the (almost) total want of" lime. Therelbre, 

 the disease, or the loundaiion of the complication 



